February 23, 2024 • 12 mins
Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS) gives the homeless population in our area a safe, warm place to sleep when harsh winter months arrive. Their biggest fundraiser, The Coldest Night of the Year, is this weekend, and executive director Robyn Miller discusses it, and so much more with us.
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(00:00):
Robin Miller is with us. She'sfrom Watts She's the executive director Winchester Area
Temporary Thermal Shelter and Robin, we'reso glad to talk to you today.
We've got a big event coming upright. This will be the second year
for this would tell everybody what itis. Yes, it is our second
annual Coldest Night of the Year.Coldest Night of the Year is a international
(00:20):
walk for people who are homeless,hurt and hungry. It is our lightest
fundraiser, but more importantly, itgives people an opportunity to walk in our
guest shoes of what it's like tobe outside having to constantly move and walk
in the cold. You will actuallywalk right past our homeless guests as they
board the bus to go into theshelter, so you're going to see what
(00:44):
they're going through and what it's likefor them. It'll begin at Bradeck Street
United Methodist Church. It will alsoend at Braddock Street United Methodist Church where
we will have a soup kitchen forall the participants. So about how long
will you be walking? How longis the walk? The bottom mile it's
flat, a very easy walk,and we also have a five k that's
a little bit more intense because wewill go through the Museum of the Shenandoah
(01:07):
Valley. But it's whatever you preferand however much you feel you can walk,
and it is completely eye opening.Right once you put yourself in someone
else's shoes, you really get asense of what it means. There's little
things that people don't take into considerationthat my guests have to do every day
to get help that they need.For example, as I mentioned, we
walk past our bus stop, wellthey have to wait outside for an hour
(01:30):
waiting for that bus to get onthe bus to get to shelter. Imagine
having this to stand there for anhour in the cold to get shelter.
It's those little things that people,I think sometimes don't think about, and
of course lack of choices. Whenwe go into the soup kitchen, you're
going to get a small bowl ofsoup. Many times my guests are offered
things than when they say no,I've had I've watched people you're just being
(01:53):
ungrateful. What if they just don'tit's that they can never just say I
really just don't want that right now. So option when you're homeless, our
lifetime's very limited, and that issomething that maybe nobody thinks about when they
think about homeless. So how longhave you been with WATTS. I've been
the executive director since twenty nineteen,but I have been volunteering since about twenty
(02:15):
seventeen. I'm the lead volunteer forbreaks Uni Methodist Church. We are a
host church. How many host churchesdo you have? We have twenty one,
so we operate from November to March. They provide the spaces for free,
which, as you can imagine,saves us a lot of money.
We also have a day shelter thatis also hosted and yet another church,
so we offer them shelter day andnight so we can get to know them
(02:38):
and start meeting with them and seeinghow we can help them and their homelessness.
And you know, that's not easyto do. It's easier said than
done. A lot of homeless havejobs. Yes. As a matter of
fact, one of our speakers thatwill be there tomorrow is our guest who
has a job. He works forthe City of Winchester. Yet it's still
(02:59):
to him three months to find housing. And if it hadn't been for a
program like WATTS, where he couldsleep at night, how would have you
kept his job. I don't thinkpeople understand how difficult it is, even
when you're employed and making a livingto just find housing to keep going.
It is awfully good that you've gotwith wants a safe place where they know
(03:20):
they can go to sleep and they'llbe safe. Just imagine having to sleep
on the streets. You just don'tknow what could happen you fall asleep,
someone could steal everything you've got orworse right, yes, and it happens,
unfortunately, all too often, whichis why we try to create a
safe zone where they can not justsleep, but get a good night's sleep.
Because you also have to think,if you're in a frightful situation,
(03:45):
you're not really sleeping well. Soit's to be able to lay down and
go to sleep and sleep well soyou can get up the next day and
start working on helping yourself. Andmy guests work very hard to get out
of this situation. That's one ofthe reasons we started our Transition out of
Homelessness program. It's very hard toget out of homelessness, and as we
(04:06):
say in our program, no onefights alone. We let them lead the
way of what they need help with, but we are there backing them up,
helping them every step of the way, because there are many challenges and
many barriers they're going to face alongthat road. Boy, that's so valuable
for them to have you in theircorners, somebody who believes in them and,
like you say, backs them up. What is something that we might
(04:30):
not know in our area about homelessnessin our area? What shocked you or
surprised you the most when you learnedit when you started working with Watts?
Honestly, how hard it was toget out of homelessness. When I first
became executive director, I helped aguest who I assumed it was going to
be easy to help her because shehad some disabilities, and I knew there
(04:54):
was a system in place to helppeople with disabilities. But it still took
four different a agencies and several monthsto take her from house to unhoused because
the incredible amount of barriers put insomebody's way. When we had a guest
who had a job, he neededhis ID. To get his ID,
he needed a birth certificate. Hewas born in Pennsylvania. It took the
(05:15):
state of Pennsylvania four months to sendhis birth certificate, which meant he couldn't
find housing, he couldn't get hecouldn't work, and he couldn't even pick
up his own prescriptions because he didn'thave a valid form of ID that he
couldn't get because he didn't have hisper certificate. I mean, it's just
odd little things like that that itis very difficult and very time consuming.
(05:35):
That's like something out of COSTCA.I mean, it really is. How
many homeless do we have? Doyou think? It's hard to know?
I know they do a sort ofa population count every year. Where are
we right now? Our last numberhad the city of Winchester alone just under
(05:56):
one hundred, But like you said, it's a moving target. They count
exactly one day a year. Andthey also don't count everybody because you can't,
No, you can't. You know, we don't know where everybody is.
And it's not like you know this, Oh you're homeless? Can I
talk to you? You don't.Someone could be standing next to you in
Walmart and they could be homeless andyou wouldn't know. It's really true.
(06:19):
Yeah, they're living in their carand they look put together and normal,
and you trust me, I couldhear it all the time when people come
in to volunteer at my shelter andsay, well, that person isn't homeless.
Look at them and I'm like,yes, that is what homelessness looks
like. They don't have a home. Yeah right. You get this one
(06:40):
Hollywood idea in your head of whatit looks like and that is not the
case. It really surprises me.So how much how much do you hope
to raise with your with your event? Well, this is the largest fundraiser
we are as of today at ninetythousand dollars, which is just astounding to
us every single day. What wasyour goal? Have you blown past it?
(07:02):
I roll a sixty five thousand?Oh wow, yes, And our
goal was seven hundred walkers. We'reat about a six I think six twenty
six. The last time I looksore almost a seven hundred. As I
mentioned, we walked right past ourguests and last year we did too,
and they were moved to tears thatwell, so many people came out to
(07:26):
support them because they really do feelthat nobody cares, and we're trying to
tell them that everybody in Winchester andFrederick County and Cark County cares. Wow.
Wow, And you know, thisis the kind of thing we call
it what a teachable moment. Butif you've got especially I think teens who
(07:46):
may just not really appreciate of everythingthey've got, this is an eye opener
for them too. Right, dopeople bring their kids? Yes, children
are welcome And I always tell parentsthis is the perfect opportunity to start that
conversation of not everybody has a home. It's not a given and it's a
hard conversation to have with children,but it's something that they need to understand
(08:11):
that your family is everything. Becauseone of our biggest things, that is
one of the most successful ways tohelp somebody end their homelessness is to find
and reconnect them to family, becauseyour family will be your support system through
thick and thin. And we've actuallythis year alone instance November, have sent
seven people across the United States toreconnect them with family, any family that
(08:35):
was willing to help them so theyhave a support system. And it's a
good conversation to talk to your childrenabout how important that is. Wow,
that has some gravity to it,doesn't it. Well, well, okay,
so if you're just joining us.Robyn Miller is the executive director of
Watts that's Winchester Area temporary thermal Shelterand they do amazing work during the winter
(09:00):
months here in our valley. Sodo you do anything during the summer or
during the off I've caught the offseason. I don't know what else to
call it, where it's a betterweather. We well, we do we
while we're always fundraising, but wealso have a cooling center in the summer
during during the day because it's reallyhot. We're in Virginia and it's hot
(09:20):
to be outside. The local churcheswill we also have a shower program just
so they can shower more often.Mount Carmel Baptist Church always has showers every
Wednesday for anyone that's almost but inthe summer we offer even more because it's
hot and you want a shower andyou want to be clean. So we
are all we do operate in thesummer also. That's fantastic. So I
(09:43):
guess really, I just want towrap up what we were talking about.
You've got it's called the coldest nightof the year. It happens tomorrow night,
Saturday night, and you will beinviting everybody out, but you need
to register before you come walk.Just get that done. You can register
(10:05):
when you're there. I know you'lltake walk ups and that's terrific, of
course, but it makes it easier. I guess if you just go online
and register beforehand. Where do theygo to register? They would go to
CNI dot com slash locations slash Winchester. Right now, we are the second
largest financially in the nation, butwe are the largest with walkers. We
(10:30):
have more walkers than anybody, andthat's wonderful to say, especially because our
biggest competitor is Fredericksburg. And Ialways think we not only have more people,
but we're a smaller town, whichmeans more people are showing that they
care exactly I always I'm sorry interrupt, I just I'm so thrilled when I
hear things like this because I'm justso proud of where we live. The
(10:52):
people here are why I decided tomove here all those years ago, decades
ago, and never let me down. This is the most wonderful community.
We care about each other and there'sproof of it, right there, isn't
that something? So tomorrow, whattime will people gather and where will they
gather? Yes, you would cometo Braddock Street United Methodist Church, which
(11:15):
is on Wolf Street at four o'clock. That's when everyone has to come in
and register and get inside. Atfive, a little bit before five o'clock,
one of our guests is will bespeaking along with our Lieutenant Governor Win
some sears to kick us off andlead us out and thank everybody for coming.
(11:37):
Excellent, and again the walk iscompletely doable. You can do flat
or you can do a little morethan that about two k that's about a
mile. And this sounds like awonderful time, an educational time, and
a time to really be proud ofour community. I think it is.
And I'm when we started this lastyear, it blew us away and this
(12:00):
where we've just we can't. I'ma lost for words and how much this
has grown just by word of mouthand by people saying how can I help?
Wonderful Robin Miller, executive director ofWinchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter better known
as WATTS and again, the coldestnight of the year, go and do
(12:22):
this walk tomorrow. You can findout all about it at Chris andlriishow dot
com. There's a link right therethat'll take you over to register. Robin,
thank you so much for joining ustoday, Thank you so much,
Robin Miller is with us. She'sfrom Watts She's the executive director Winchester Area
Temporary Thermal Shelter and Robin, we'reso glad to talk to you today.
We've got a big event coming upright. This will be the second year
for this would tell everybody what itis. Yes, it is our second
annual Coldest Night of the Year.Coldest Night of the Year is a international
(00:20):
walk for people who are homeless,hurt and hungry. It is our lightest
fundraiser, but more importantly, itgives people an opportunity to walk in our
guest shoes of what it's like tobe outside having to constantly move and walk
in the cold. You will actuallywalk right past our homeless guests as they
board the bus to go into theshelter, so you're going to see what
(00:44):
they're going through and what it's likefor them. It'll begin at Bradeck Street
United Methodist Church. It will alsoend at Braddock Street United Methodist Church where
we will have a soup kitchen forall the participants. So about how long
will you be walking? How longis the walk? The bottom mile it's
flat, a very easy walk,and we also have a five k that's
a little bit more intense because wewill go through the Museum of the Shenandoah
(01:07):
Valley. But it's whatever you preferand however much you feel you can walk,
and it is completely eye opening.Right once you put yourself in someone
else's shoes, you really get asense of what it means. There's little
things that people don't take into considerationthat my guests have to do every day
to get help that they need.For example, as I mentioned, we
walk past our bus stop, wellthey have to wait outside for an hour
(01:30):
waiting for that bus to get onthe bus to get to shelter. Imagine
having this to stand there for anhour in the cold to get shelter.
It's those little things that people,I think sometimes don't think about, and
of course lack of choices. Whenwe go into the soup kitchen, you're
going to get a small bowl ofsoup. Many times my guests are offered
things than when they say no,I've had I've watched people you're just being
(01:53):
ungrateful. What if they just don'tit's that they can never just say I
really just don't want that right now. So option when you're homeless, our
lifetime's very limited, and that issomething that maybe nobody thinks about when they
think about homeless. So how longhave you been with WATTS. I've been
the executive director since twenty nineteen,but I have been volunteering since about twenty
(02:15):
seventeen. I'm the lead volunteer forbreaks Uni Methodist Church. We are a
host church. How many host churchesdo you have? We have twenty one,
so we operate from November to March. They provide the spaces for free,
which, as you can imagine,saves us a lot of money.
We also have a day shelter thatis also hosted and yet another church,
so we offer them shelter day andnight so we can get to know them
(02:38):
and start meeting with them and seeinghow we can help them and their homelessness.
And you know, that's not easyto do. It's easier said than
done. A lot of homeless havejobs. Yes. As a matter of
fact, one of our speakers thatwill be there tomorrow is our guest who
has a job. He works forthe City of Winchester. Yet it's still
(02:59):
to him three months to find housing. And if it hadn't been for a
program like WATTS, where he couldsleep at night, how would have you
kept his job. I don't thinkpeople understand how difficult it is, even
when you're employed and making a livingto just find housing to keep going.
It is awfully good that you've gotwith wants a safe place where they know
(03:20):
they can go to sleep and they'llbe safe. Just imagine having to sleep
on the streets. You just don'tknow what could happen you fall asleep,
someone could steal everything you've got orworse right, yes, and it happens,
unfortunately, all too often, whichis why we try to create a
safe zone where they can not justsleep, but get a good night's sleep.
Because you also have to think,if you're in a frightful situation,
(03:45):
you're not really sleeping well. Soit's to be able to lay down and
go to sleep and sleep well soyou can get up the next day and
start working on helping yourself. Andmy guests work very hard to get out
of this situation. That's one ofthe reasons we started our Transition out of
Homelessness program. It's very hard toget out of homelessness, and as we
(04:06):
say in our program, no onefights alone. We let them lead the
way of what they need help with, but we are there backing them up,
helping them every step of the way, because there are many challenges and
many barriers they're going to face alongthat road. Boy, that's so valuable
for them to have you in theircorners, somebody who believes in them and,
like you say, backs them up. What is something that we might
(04:30):
not know in our area about homelessnessin our area? What shocked you or
surprised you the most when you learnedit when you started working with Watts?
Honestly, how hard it was toget out of homelessness. When I first
became executive director, I helped aguest who I assumed it was going to
be easy to help her because shehad some disabilities, and I knew there
(04:54):
was a system in place to helppeople with disabilities. But it still took
four different a agencies and several monthsto take her from house to unhoused because
the incredible amount of barriers put insomebody's way. When we had a guest
who had a job, he neededhis ID. To get his ID,
he needed a birth certificate. Hewas born in Pennsylvania. It took the
(05:15):
state of Pennsylvania four months to sendhis birth certificate, which meant he couldn't
find housing, he couldn't get hecouldn't work, and he couldn't even pick
up his own prescriptions because he didn'thave a valid form of ID that he
couldn't get because he didn't have hisper certificate. I mean, it's just
odd little things like that that itis very difficult and very time consuming.
(05:35):
That's like something out of COSTCA.I mean, it really is. How
many homeless do we have? Doyou think? It's hard to know?
I know they do a sort ofa population count every year. Where are
we right now? Our last numberhad the city of Winchester alone just under
(05:56):
one hundred, But like you said, it's a moving target. They count
exactly one day a year. Andthey also don't count everybody because you can't,
No, you can't. You know, we don't know where everybody is.
And it's not like you know this, Oh you're homeless? Can I
talk to you? You don't.Someone could be standing next to you in
Walmart and they could be homeless andyou wouldn't know. It's really true.
(06:19):
Yeah, they're living in their carand they look put together and normal,
and you trust me, I couldhear it all the time when people come
in to volunteer at my shelter andsay, well, that person isn't homeless.
Look at them and I'm like,yes, that is what homelessness looks
like. They don't have a home. Yeah right. You get this one
(06:40):
Hollywood idea in your head of whatit looks like and that is not the
case. It really surprises me.So how much how much do you hope
to raise with your with your event? Well, this is the largest fundraiser
we are as of today at ninetythousand dollars, which is just astounding to
us every single day. What wasyour goal? Have you blown past it?
(07:02):
I roll a sixty five thousand?Oh wow, yes, And our
goal was seven hundred walkers. We'reat about a six I think six twenty
six. The last time I looksore almost a seven hundred. As I
mentioned, we walked right past ourguests and last year we did too,
and they were moved to tears thatwell, so many people came out to
(07:26):
support them because they really do feelthat nobody cares, and we're trying to
tell them that everybody in Winchester andFrederick County and Cark County cares. Wow.
Wow, And you know, thisis the kind of thing we call
it what a teachable moment. Butif you've got especially I think teens who
(07:46):
may just not really appreciate of everythingthey've got, this is an eye opener
for them too. Right, dopeople bring their kids? Yes, children
are welcome And I always tell parentsthis is the perfect opportunity to start that
conversation of not everybody has a home. It's not a given and it's a
hard conversation to have with children,but it's something that they need to understand
(08:11):
that your family is everything. Becauseone of our biggest things, that is
one of the most successful ways tohelp somebody end their homelessness is to find
and reconnect them to family, becauseyour family will be your support system through
thick and thin. And we've actuallythis year alone instance November, have sent
seven people across the United States toreconnect them with family, any family that
(08:35):
was willing to help them so theyhave a support system. And it's a
good conversation to talk to your childrenabout how important that is. Wow,
that has some gravity to it,doesn't it. Well, well, okay,
so if you're just joining us.Robyn Miller is the executive director of
Watts that's Winchester Area temporary thermal Shelterand they do amazing work during the winter
(09:00):
months here in our valley. Sodo you do anything during the summer or
during the off I've caught the offseason. I don't know what else to
call it, where it's a betterweather. We well, we do we
while we're always fundraising, but wealso have a cooling center in the summer
during during the day because it's reallyhot. We're in Virginia and it's hot
(09:20):
to be outside. The local churcheswill we also have a shower program just
so they can shower more often.Mount Carmel Baptist Church always has showers every
Wednesday for anyone that's almost but inthe summer we offer even more because it's
hot and you want a shower andyou want to be clean. So we
are all we do operate in thesummer also. That's fantastic. So I
(09:43):
guess really, I just want towrap up what we were talking about.
You've got it's called the coldest nightof the year. It happens tomorrow night,
Saturday night, and you will beinviting everybody out, but you need
to register before you come walk.Just get that done. You can register
(10:05):
when you're there. I know you'lltake walk ups and that's terrific, of
course, but it makes it easier. I guess if you just go online
and register beforehand. Where do theygo to register? They would go to
CNI dot com slash locations slash Winchester. Right now, we are the second
largest financially in the nation, butwe are the largest with walkers. We
(10:30):
have more walkers than anybody, andthat's wonderful to say, especially because our
biggest competitor is Fredericksburg. And Ialways think we not only have more people,
but we're a smaller town, whichmeans more people are showing that they
care exactly I always I'm sorry interrupt, I just I'm so thrilled when I
hear things like this because I'm justso proud of where we live. The
(10:52):
people here are why I decided tomove here all those years ago, decades
ago, and never let me down. This is the most wonderful community.
We care about each other and there'sproof of it, right there, isn't
that something? So tomorrow, whattime will people gather and where will they
gather? Yes, you would cometo Braddock Street United Methodist Church, which
(11:15):
is on Wolf Street at four o'clock. That's when everyone has to come in
and register and get inside. Atfive, a little bit before five o'clock,
one of our guests is will bespeaking along with our Lieutenant Governor Win
some sears to kick us off andlead us out and thank everybody for coming.
(11:37):
Excellent, and again the walk iscompletely doable. You can do flat
or you can do a little morethan that about two k that's about a
mile. And this sounds like awonderful time, an educational time, and
a time to really be proud ofour community. I think it is.
And I'm when we started this lastyear, it blew us away and this
(12:00):
where we've just we can't. I'ma lost for words and how much this
has grown just by word of mouthand by people saying how can I help?
Wonderful Robin Miller, executive director ofWinchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter better known
as WATTS and again, the coldestnight of the year, go and do
(12:22):
this walk tomorrow. You can findout all about it at Chris andlriishow dot
com. There's a link right therethat'll take you over to register. Robin,
thank you so much for joining ustoday, Thank you so much,
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